World Tree MUSH

    'Hey, Zelda. I'm on summer vacation, and we don't have anything we can do to advance our plans here in Hyrule... why don't I take you out to visit Natsuto for a night? It's far enough away you should be safe from Zant's forces, and I think you could use the night out.'

    So here we are in Natsuto City. Yumi has been a dutiful host, taking Zelda to visit a few various landmarks in the high-tech city. There's a bit of a festival air about; the Tanabata festival is about two weeks away, and everyone's getting in the spirit already.

    Plus, y'know, it's hot. So anything to distract from the heat is welcome.

    But now the evening's outing finds its way into a yakiniku restaurant. Every table installed with a miniature barbecue, and quite a few booths for a nice and cozy dining experience - and to judge by the greeting at the door, it seems Yumi's a regular here. "Ah, Tachibana, welcome back~! Your usual booth's open, if you want to have a seat with your friend!" "Eheh..."

  Despite being caught largely unawares, the princess had managed to find something nice to wear for the evening. It's not her full royal regalia. She's managed to make some headway in repairing it during the downtime. That would draw too much attention, though. Instead, she found a simple, elegant black dress. It manages to accentuate all the curves, too; the kind of nice attire that wouldn't be out of place in a black-tie restaurant in the modern city.

  It's probably overcompensation, but it's all she managed to find in the garrison's leftover supplies. Someone had stored it well enough that between the preparation and the cold it had survived. She's braided her hair up in the same way Yumi had first met her; the locks to the side of her face braided and bound with black ribbon, the rest gathered up in an elegant braid capped with that silver cuff. Her earrings go with the dress and lend a splash of colour with the tassel of red silk; although the long, tapering point is immediately enough to set her apart as a foreigner. She managed to find two nice golden bracelets, too. They don't show any royal insignia. That generic quality is probably helpful.

  So here Zelda is, following Yumi with all the nervousness of a fugitive, although her expression is calm. She doesn't speak to the offworlders (well, they're offworlders to /her/), but she does offer a tentative smile in their direction when they immediately greet Yumi.

  "Seems like you have a reputation here, Tachibana Yumi." Zelda's observation is little more than a nervous breath. "Are you sure this place is safe? Maybe we haven't gone far enough..."

  Geez, she's as nervous as a cat sitting on a griddle. It's been a long time since she's actually been out, in public, just for the sake of being out in public, without worrying about where the next attack is going to come from. Maybe she's a bit rusty.

    "I-I might've been here a few times before," Yumi admits, cheeks tinting faintly. She slides into her seat smoothly, already picking up her menu and browsing it over - but she doesn't miss the nerves on her friend's part, and she gives the princess a reassuring smile. "We'll be fine. You've left the world for hours at a time and come back with no issue before, and the last two times you've been here, they never showed up. As long as we don't keep you here all night, it's okay to relax a little. Just take a nice deep breath, alright? In, out." For a moment, her demeanor is less 'teen' and more 'protective sister'. Seeing Zelda so tense really worries her. "You want to start with an appetizer or something, or should we just start ordering stuff to grill?"

  Drawing in a slow breath through her nose, the princess quietly lets it go through her teeth, although her eyes still flick toward the shadows.

  "Very well." She concedes, but very softly. "But the instant something feels amiss..."

  Her warning is half-hearted. The thought of staying here and enjoying something she so rarely gets to enjoy is tempting. Her people are suffering, so what right does she have to stay here and indulge? ...But she gently pushes aside that twinge of guilt. Yumi had invited her. The least she can do is be present, and enjoy herself. The girl just wants to help.

  Zelda manages a slightly unsteady smile that's probably meant to be reassuring.

  "I may not have remembered to eat lunch..." Her faint smile turns sheepish. It's more likely that she didn't eat than she did; getting engrossed in a task and skipping meals is a thing she tends to do when nobody's there to remind her to eat. "An appetizer, please. Maybe I can bring some of it back to Link, if it's relatively rare... his dietary options are somewhat, hm, /limited/ right now."

    "Hmm... most of the appetizers are stuff like miso soup or... oh!" Yumi's eyes settle on something and light up. "We could get the kara-age. It's more like a side dish than an appetizer, I guess, but it's really good, and we could take leftovers of that back with us." The waiter is quick to pick up her order - she requests that, and a small plate of meats to get them started while they wait; the barbecue at their table can handle grilling, but deep-fried chicken is something the kitchen will have to take care of. "Did you ever find any cookbooks in the library, come to think of it?"

  "Whatever you feel is best." Zelda shrugs illustratively. "You know this food by far better than I do, so I trust your judgement in the matter. I'm sure there are equivalents throughout Hyrule to dishes like these... but this is new for me."

  She's a princess. One can't imagine she had much time to go traipsing across the countryside, sampling various and sundry local cuisine.

  Cookbooks? The princess tilts her head; without the layers of her hooded cloak, the gesture seems almost bird-like. "I'm certain there are some there, but I haven't had the time to process them. I've been much more concerned with making preparations to leave for Faron Wood. We will have to go eventually... I must stay to see the reconstruction, and I must..."

  "Well..." She lets out a breath too faint to be a sigh. "I suppose it sounds silly that I must wait for a sign. I have been trying to divine what is happening to the Light Spirits, but... I am hesitant to march into what is most likely a trap... so I seek guidance, but I have found no answers as of yet."

    Yumi shakes her head. "No, it makes perfect sense. Better not to just go marching in blind, if we can help it." In a less openly supernatural world, she might be a little dubious, but Yumi has spoken personally to divinity through Zelda. It's kind of hard to discount divine guidance in the face of that. "And I'm out of school until the end of August, so I can be ready to go at the drop of a hat, any time. I-" Oh hello food.

    A platter of marinated meats is set down on the table, and without skipping a beat, Yumi grabs the accompanying tongs and lays a strip on the grill. "Your chicken should be out about the time that's done cooking," the waiter offers with a smile, before heading back into the kitchen. "This is kind of a sweet and savory beef, I think you'll like it."

  "It will be some time before I can leave." Zelda's statement is just a little uneasy. The strain of waiting when she wants to leave is beginning to tell. Her half-smile is a little haggard. "It will be safer if I heed the goddesses. I don't know what he's up to, but he's up to something."

  He's always up to something. It's the only way he's managed to hold Hyrule's territories for as long as he has. Zelda is clever, and the more he pushes her, the more intricate and cunning her plans to strike the usurper down.

  She passed the point of mercy several months ago.

  Blue eyes settle on the platter set before them, studying the meat with the critical eye of someone used to royal cuisine... and the curiosity of someone who hasn't had much else. It looks pretty intriguing, and it smells pretty intriguing, too.

  "Oh." She looks up to the waiter as though seeing him for the first time, offering a hesitant but pretty smile. "Thank you."

  Half a glance is cast to Yumi, waiting for the native girl to take the lead. Okay, now what do they do? This here's /your/ homeworld, Mostly Normal Girl!

    Yumi is already laying strips of meat on the grill - but there's a second pair of tongs, which she flips around in a dextrous maneuver and hands over to Zelda. "Here. We can just grill what we want as we want it, and then just grab whatever you like as it's ready. I kind of like it like this, lets us set the pace of the meal, instead of just having everything brought out cooked and ready to sit there while you eat something else first." Granted, it does shift the burden of 'actually cooking the meat' from the chefs to them, but when everything is all set up and ready, that's not too bad, right? "Did you ever do any cooking?" she asks, curious. "I know you probably had a lot of chefs."

  The Hylian arches a brow as the tongs are neatly flipped and handed to her, and she takes them carefully. She goes about setting her own piece of meat to grill, handling the tongs with an admirable lack of awkwardness.

  "Only in a manner of speaking." That might be surprising, and her half-smile is a little self-depreciating. "Sometimes I'd stay in the kitchens in my spare time, and watch how the chefs did what they did. They wouldn't let me try, of course. Not unless I asked. I didn't want to be a burden, so I only watched."

  Zelda shrugs, gaze dropping to gauge the meat. "It was enough. I had to learn fast after I... left, but I can make something... edible... I suppose..."

  Yeah, it sounds lame even to her own pointy ears.

    Yumi laughs softly. "Hey, don't feel too bad. There's people older than you who don't know how at all, and they don't have an excuse like having an entire royal staff to do it for them." She settles back, listening to the sizzle of the grilling meat, and looks thoughtful. "I'll have to see if I can get some cooking stuff up there. A proper stove might not be an option, but with skillets and pots and stuff, you'd just need a thermometer to keep an eye on the temperature over a wood fire... hmm..."

    While she's pondering this, the waiter finally comes out, with a plate of what could be described as popcorn chicken, sort of - the breading smells savory, and there's a dipping sauce with it that smells like a combination of sriracha and mayo. And true to his word, the first strips of meat are already starting to look just about done.

  "Hmm." The Hylian glances to Yumi, blue eyes calculating, but she doesn't argue the point. "There's a large kitchen in the garrison. Most of the tools didn't survive the years. If you could bring new utensils, that would be very helpful. I can provide a list."

  Her eyes flick from the waiter to the chicken he's carrying to the sauces, and she shifts her weight in her seat to wait. Is she impatient to eat? Probably. But she would never breach etiquette by making that patently obvious. For now, Zelda will wait to follow Yumi's lead like a polite, regally-mannered guest.

  Some old habits are pretty hard to kick.

    Yumi is just moving to take a strip of meat off the grill when she stops in her tracks; she's nothing if not observant, far moreso than most girls her age. "...you don't have to wait for me, go on and grab what you like," she laughs. "It's a very informal dining style. Good for big families, too." Her head dips towards the kara-age, and she adds, "That's good, I dunno what they add to it. It's just a /little/ sweet, but it's real subtle. The mayo's a bit spicy, though, fair warning." A strip of meat goes on her plate, then another, then a few pieces of chicken. "There's a couple other sauces in those glass bottles, too, they're good with the beef. How have Rydia and Terra been?"

  "Oh, thank you." Zelda's statement is relieved. She could have waited, but if she's hungry enough to admit to being hungry, she must be half-starved. She tucks into the food with restrained enthusiasm, following Yumi's lead and clearing her plate with admirable speed in spite of her delicacy and grace.

  Even the subtly sweet and spicy sauces are given a fair try. "This is good." Her assessment is a little surprised in spite of itself. A few seconds pass in silence while Zelda busies herself with disappearing the contents of her plate.

  "Rydia has been as well as can be expected, as far as I can tell. She keeps her own company, and she practises with her summoned beasts when she feels it necessary." Her explanations are given between mouthfuls of delicious grilled food, though she does slow a little to sigh. "I help her where I can, but some days, I'm afraid there's nothing I can do to mend the hurts in her heart. All I can do is be patient with her..."

  The subject of Terra earns a faint shrug. "I think Terra Branford has a great deal of hurt in her heart, too, but in different ways. That one is skittish as a rabbit... sometimes merely speaking to her seems to frighten her. She cannot remember much of her past, either." Zelda shakes her head slightly, the red silk tassesl of her earrings and braids ghosting the movement. "I have tried seeking answers from the Author of Law, but She is silent. So shall She remain, until the time is right, I suppose."

  "You have neglected to mentioned someone in your questions, though." The princess levels one of those summer-blue eyes on Yumi, head tilted just slightly to regard the girl obliquely. "How have you been, Tachibana Yumi...? It has been a while."

    "It has," Yumi agrees, looking a bit chagrined. "I've been busy with school, and doing a little of my own legwork around the city... plus, there was this hostage thing with a bunch of illegal logging, and I met some superheroes there, then I went to visit their world, and a couple of them came to visit here, and..." She pauses, and then laughs softly. "...wow, that all sounds completely insane. But I've been alright, more or less. Just keeping busy. Ah-" She waves the waiter over, and makes a quick order for a couple different kinds of meat, before turning back to her own meal (and boy, can she tuck it away).

    "I haven't heard anything else from our mysterious note-leaver, though," the redhead adds, her face growing a bit more troubled. "That honestly bothers me worse. There's someone out there who knows all about my sense, knows about you guys, and knew how to find that... thing, and they're just resting on their laurels. No way to know who they are or what they're thinking."

  The fragmentary tale earns a bit of a squint, but the princess doesn't comment on the increasingly strange narrative. It does sound insane. If it were coming from anybody else she might actually question sanity. This is Tachibana Yumi, though, who has proven herself to be nothing if not reliable and stable.

  "Hmmm. I suppose that is, technically, 'keeping busy.' Ah? No more notesfrom your friend? That is troubling," Zelda admits, with a note of concern. "Perhaps they've lost interest, or perhaps they're waiting for a particular opportunity. I hope we can find out more information about that, soon..."

  She shakes her head. "Or they are waiting with the specific purpose of unsettling you. It is become now a waiting-game, and you must be patient. The goddesses always reveal their methods in time." Zelda's half-smile seems uncertain even to herself. "We just have to be patient..."

  That's the mantra she's been telling herself for the past few weeks. The strain of it is starting to show, to the observant.

  Zelda is not a woman who does well with idleness.

    "Patient, yeah... I'm not a fan of it, but we don't have much choice." Whatever else she'd planned to say, it's cut off by the arrival of another couple plates of meat, these done in an entirely different marinade each. "Oh, here we go- thank you!" Yumi takes the plates, finding a space for both of them on the table with practiced ease, then picks up a couple strips of each to put on now-vacant spots on the grill. "Though it's not so bad when it's food you're cooking, I guess."

  "I'll let you in on a little secret, Tachibana Yumi." Zelda regards her friend across the table, and while she doesn't smile, there's a flicker of mirth in those summer-blue eyes. "I was never good at being patient. I was the most impatient child you'll have ever met. Yet patience is an important skill, although it is often one that must be developed."

  She finishes off her plate, and though she does it quickly, she also does so daintily. The princess is nothing if not a fastidious sort of person. Her royal dignity aside, she's proven herself to be cleanly as a cat. "This is delicious," she adds, in the middle of her observation. "I hope there's enough left to take back to Link." It'd be nice to give him something other than wolfos stew or raw wolfos. Those bastards are tough as shoe leather.

  "My point is, it may not be something we feel we're skilled with, or even fond of, but it is nonetheless necessary." Zelda fixes Yumi with those soft eyes; old and wise beyond their years, and the girl might hearken to the echo of Hylia that had regarded her from them -- but there's nothing supernatural about Zelda's presence. There's a trace of Hylia in all of the Goddess' descendants. Some are just closer to the surface than others. She laughs, softly, at Yumi's assessment of cooking food. "No. It's not."

  Putting to word what she'd just been talking about, the princess settles patiently, waiting for the rest of the meal to cook and breathing in the delicious scent of grilling meat. She does so with admirable patience, to go by how hungry she must have been; moving not so much as a muscle other than to flick her gaze between each piece, gauging the time and the rarity of the meat.

  "While I hate to eat and run, I'll be leaving after I've finished," she murmurs. "I've already stayed here for far too long. I would like you to return to Snowpeak Garrison when you have the opportunity. I think you'll like the work that's been done. Summer on the mountain is mild, and the structure is looking like new."